Israel's Possible EMP Attack On Iran Before US Elections

History professor William R. Forstchen commented on a potential EMP attack that Israel might stage on Iran. An electromagnetic pulse detonation high in the atmosphere could fry all power and communication grids below. He believes that such a confrontation would escalate, and other countries like the US and possibly Russia would be dragged into the conflict.

An electromagnetic pulse (commonly abbreviated EMP) is a burst of electromagnetic radiation. The abrupt pulse of electromagnetic radiation usually results from certain types of high energy explosions, especially a nuclear explosion, or from a suddenly fluctuating magnetic field. The resulting rapidly-changing electric fields and magnetic fields may couple with electrical/electronic systems to produce damaging current and voltage surges.

In military terminology, a nuclear warhead detonated hundreds of kilometers above the Earth’s surface is known as a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) device. Effects of a HEMP device depend on a very large number of factors, including the altitude of the detonation, energy yield, gamma ray output, interactions with the Earth’s magnetic field, and electromagnetic shielding of targets.

Iranian–Israeli relations have shifted from close ties between Israel and Iran during the era of the Pahlavi dynasty to hostility since the Islamic Revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Iran has severed all diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel, and its government does not recognize Israel as a country and refers to its government as the “Zionist regime.” The land is referred to by Iran as “Occupied territories.”

Due to recent rhetoric between Iran and Israel, development of nuclear technology, and funding of the groups Hamas and Hezbollah, tensions have risen between the State of Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially after the election of the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in office since August 2005, at the October 2005 “World Without Zionism” conference in Teheran adopted a sharp anti-Zionist stance. On December 8, 2005, during a summit of Muslim nations in Islam’s holy city of Mecca, Ahmadinejad told Iran’s Arabic channel Al-Alam a complicated story on Holocaust and the establishment of Israel. Since then, has made statements pertaining to these topics.

On 20 February 2009, after being asked to be the prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu described Iran as the greatest threat that Israel has ever faced: “Iran is seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon and constitutes the gravest threat to our existence since the war of independence.”

Speaking before the UN General Assembly in New York on 24 September 2009, Netanyahu expressed a different opinion than Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at the forum, saying those who believe Tehran is a threat only to Israel are wrong. “The Iranian regime”, he said, “is motivated by fanaticism… They want to see us go back to medieval times. The struggle against Iran pits civilization against barbarism. This Iranian regime is fueled by extreme fundamentalism